The new Hydrangea cultivar is a product of a planned breeding program conducted by the inventor, Timothy Wood, in Grand Haven, Mich. The objective of the breeding program was to produce new Hydrangea varieties for garden use. The open pollination resulting in this new variety was made during 2004.
The seed parent is the unpatented commercial variety Hydrangea paniculata ‘Maiko’. The pollen parent is unknown, as it was an open pollination breeding program. The new variety was identified as a potentially interesting selection June of 2007, at a greenhouse in Grand Haven, Mich.
Asexual reproduction of the new cultivar ‘SMHSMAKF2’ by softwood cuttings was first performed in July of 2007, at commercial greenhouse in Grand Haven, Mich. Subsequent propagation has shown that the unique features of this cultivar are stable and reproduced true to type in multiple successive generations.